#ivan lebedeff

Bachelor Apartment (1931) Lowell Sherman

Wood Engraving Wednesday

IVAN LEBEDEFF

This Wednesday we present four wood engravings by the Russian-born French artist Ivan Lebedeff, also known professionally as Jean Lebedeff and Ivan Lebedev, from the 1929 Golden Cockerel Press printing of Russian writer Leonid Andreyev’s story The Abyss with a translation by John Cournos, and printed by fellow wood engraver Robert Gibbings in an edition of 500 copies.

Originally published in 1901 in response to Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata, an argument for the ideal of sexual abstinence, The Abyss ruffled some societal feathers at the time for its candid sexual content. In their A History of the Golden Cockerel Press, Roderick Cave and Sarah Manson write that Lebedeff’s “powerful engravings suited the rather grim story by Leonid Andreyev very well; perhaps too well, as few Cockerel collectors seemed to like them.” We, however, like them very well.

Our copy is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

View other posts on works by the Golden Cockerel Press.